Giuliani Puts Off Decision On 2008

(AP)  Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said Tuesday he was not planning to run for political office next year and would probably decide in a "couple years" whether to run for president.

"I'm not running for any political post next year," Giuliani said after meeting Prague's mayor, Pavel Bem, who praised Giuliani for his leadership following the Sept. 11 attacks and for reducing New York's crime rate.

Giuliani, New York's mayor in 1994-2001, has spent the years since leaving office as a corporate executive and public speaker, and he suggested earlier this month he could return to politics.

On a trip to Denmark, he said that next year he would contemplate a run for the White House.

But when asked Tuesday whether he was considering a run for president in 2008, Giuliani said it was too soon to decide.

"It's very far off and to make a decision like that is a couple years away," Giuliani said.

"It's not something that I'm currently thinking about."

Aides to Giuliani recently said he is too busy with private business interests to run for New York governor next year.

National polls in the United States regularly place Giuliani among the most popular Republican candidates, and he is asked about his plans at almost every public appearance. He usually deflects the question by suggesting he would not decide on a 2008 run until after the 2006 congressional elections.

Giuliani was in Prague to attend a two-day international conference on relations between the United States and the European Union and the fight against terrorism. Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and former British Prime Minister John Major also were scheduled to participate.